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Author Topic: Choir focused mixing during very lively contemporary praise and worship  (Read 6364 times)

Taylor Phillips

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Re: Choir focused mixing during very lively contemporary praise and worship
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2017, 03:21:05 PM »



Thank guys for your guidance. I have tried all of the mentioned procedures all ready. I think the problem is a combo of things. It kinda boils down to the choir portion of service which is opener just doesn't fit anymore. It kinda bring praise band down off their energy level for first service. Second service sound is great energy great congregation energy high. It shows in attendance numbers also. First service 60% capacity second service 95% capacity. Any suggestions on handling that??

Thanks again

60% capacity not a bad number at all. I know plenty of churches that would love to fill their sanctuaries to that amount on a regular basis.  It certainly shows that there is still a decent amount of interest in the choir service.  95% capacity is really too full.  80% is generally where I've seen it recommended to consider adding additional services or expanding facilities. While the less than perfect choir might take away from the service, it may not actually be the reason for the difference in attendance. I've been in churches with multiple identical services and one service was always more generally well attended than the others. The only difference was the time of the service, and in some cases which Sunday school classes were offered. Time was definitely the biggest factor with mid morning always being the most popular. (Late enough not to sleep in, early enough to beat the crowds to lunch).

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Kyle Waters

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Re: Choir focused mixing during very lively contemporary praise and worship
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2017, 12:57:36 AM »

I run sound for a pretty large church, with a pretty large choir, and a pretty lively service, and we now do it successfully each Sunday.  It hasn't been without some gnashing of teeth, some equipment changes, so I'll tell you what we do and what we use.  First off, you never ever run the choir mics back through the choir monitors.  Many will die, not an option.  One of the first things I did was to change choir mics. We were using hanging condenser hyper-cardioid mics with limited success. They worked OK when we were a mostly traditional piano and organ church, but as we became more and more blended/contemporary, our old mics where showing their limitations.  Our sanctuary has high ceilings and is fairly reverberant.  The mic properties, coupled with the room characteristics and a loud stage were causing low choir volume and transient frequencies to be reproduced.  We use Heil PR30's with great success.  They are dynamic not condenser mics.  They have pretty tight pick-up pattern, and being cardioid, they don't pick up sound from the rear like super and hyper mics do.  They aren't as sensitive as condenser mics, but that's why we chose them. I use three microphones for a 60-70 member choir standing in three rows.   Second was to make sure the stage around the choir was as quiet as it possibly could be. We switched the band from open monitors to ears and personal monitor mixers.  Like someone said above, the loudest sound at the microphone is what you will hear.  No way around that one, pure and simple physics.  It also helps on how loud your choirs monitors have to be.  I also moved loud acoustical instruments (piano/brass) to the front away from the choir.  The new mics do a lot better on a loud stage (orchestra) but do even better when the stage volume is under control. At our church, our praise team are also members of the choir.  They stand out front and sing with the choir and sing parts.  Sometimes I have 8 singers with individual mics on stage along with a full choir behind them.  Having a team singing the same thing and the same parts as the choir is a lifesaver.  If you use them right, and assuming you have good singers, you can really make your choir number standout with clarity.  You have to use your miked singers as your base.  Just like mixing your band, you have a key instrument that you build off of.  Put them in a console group, mix them, and slightly compress the group, and add a touch of reverb.  Make them your base singers and them bring your choir mics up to build in around them.  We have come a long way.  I can honestly say, I'm happy with our sound right now.  I haven't said that many times over the 20 years I've been doing this.
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Doug Hammel

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Re: Choir focused mixing during very lively contemporary praise and worship
« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2017, 02:58:16 PM »

Hello to all. New to forum
Big on going problem that I need advice on.
We run 2 services back to back and are going to have to add 3rd.
Service 1 starts with 2choir songs that are heavily arranged with brass section and key focused.
Then we have remaining praise and worship with 3 guitars synth drums bass lead vocals and 3 backing vocals no brass no choir.
Problem I'm having is to accommodate the choir portion with the quality needed. Once I open brass mics and open choir mics the quality and dynamics set for hard driving p&w goes at the door and we are left with thin tones and overall lacking in any punch. I've tried to work with it but just can't get it to come back. Second service no problem cause no choir. I'm afraid if choir and brass is added to other services I'll be in same problem. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

What choir mics are you using? Do you have a pic you could post of your stage? I have a similar setup that we do on a weekly basis. It can be fun, but it is entirely doable.
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Re: Choir focused mixing during very lively contemporary praise and worship
« Reply #12 on: September 26, 2017, 02:58:16 PM »


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